Into the Shadows FASA (ISBN 1-55560-118-9) Was released as a primer of what was to come in a new game called Shadowrun to be released a few months later. Its my understanding that Jordan and Tom had used these stories to help the other game designers to understand the setting they were creating. The stories interconnect as characters or events from one are mentioned in another or you read of wild battle that few to much attention only to find out in another story that it had been a feint to hide the real run by another team. It was our introduction to Striper, Wolf and Raven and places like the Jackal’s Lantern in 2050.
I do not own an actual copy of this version but it is my understanding that the first story, Into the Shadows by Robert Charrette was expanded into the first book of Secrets of Power trilogy (Never Deal with a Dragon) and so removed from the ROC publication and replaced with A Plague of Demons
Into the Shadows ROC (ISBN 0-451-45189-9) was published two years later as the seventh book in a series of 40 books released over a 12 year period.
The ROC book includes:
Prologue by Jordan Weisman
A Plague of Deamons by Tom Dowd
Graverobbers by Elizabeth T. Danforth
Tailchaser by Paul R. Hume
Striper by Nyx Smith
Whitechapel Rose by Lorelei Shannon
Turtle In The Tower by Ken St.Andre
Free Fall by Tom Dowd
Would It Help To Say I’m Sorry by Michael A. Stackpole
It’s All Done With Mirrors by Michael A. Stackpole
These are, for all intents and purposes the words that all of the Shadowrun universe sprung from and for that they have gained a reverent following. I do believe there are some excellent works here and I truly enjoy Jordan’s ability to weave the stories together and create a continuos world where choices or actions of characters by one author effect the actions of others being written by another author.
Into the Shadows (FASA) with the new story, introduction, and more is, for me, worth the $100.00 level if I wasn’t already backing well above that.
